Dell XPS 8500 Support Issues

Inscrutable

I bought a new top of the line €1.3k XPS 8500 tower (spec below) from dell six months ago. It's super fast however a month in I started getting some blue screen of death issues. My first call to Dell support the guy took virtual control of my PC, analysed the problem and then told me I don't have software support with my package and gave me a ten minute hard sell on a €300 three year package. I took his word for it and in my idiocy assumed I didn't actually have software support and just hoped it would go away for the next few weeks.

I'm reasonably computer savvy and when system restore didn't work and the BSOD issues persisted I tried to resinstall windows. Only problem was that I then realised it didn't come with a windows re-installation disk. So I called Dell back and was told I do in fact have software support and their initial line of attack was that it was a software issue and they reinstalled some drivers, which didn't solve the problem.

I have been on the phone to the guys in India many times at this stage, who in fairness have been helpful, but they don't seem to know what is going wrong. After I think four visits from Dell's (contracted) engineers here in Ireland to replace the video card, the motherboard, both the SSD and HDD and windows re-installed, I am still having blue screen of death issues (four in the past week or so).

The guys are coming to replace the memory in the next day or two. My patience is running out and if this doesn't work I will be demanding a new PC. The question is have any of you had any similar experiences of this? Should they know what is causing the BSOD issue? (the BSOD messages have throughout generally referred to Memory Management but the pre-boot diagnostic reveals no problems)

Base
XPS 8500 Standard Base
Memory
16384MB (4x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
Keyboard
Dell KB 113 USB Entry Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Monitor
Display Not Included
Video Card
AMD Radeon™ HD 7770 2GB DDR5 Graphics Card
Driver
Dell 1703 Wireless Label
Hard Drive
256GB SSD + 2TB (7,200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Operating System
English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Mouse
Dell Laser Mouse USB (6 buttons scroll) Black
Optical Devices
16x DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
Sound Cards
Integrated 7.1 with WAVE MAXXAudio 4
Speakers
No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Wireless Networking
Dell Wireless 1703 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0+LE
Cables
2 Meter Power Cord - UK
Shipping Documents
EMEA3 MUI Docs - West/Swiss/MEA (Eng, Ger, Fre, Dut, Ita, Ara, Tur)
Gedis Bundle Reference
D02X8535
Enhanced Service Packs
1 Year Next Day In-Home Service with Premium Phone Support
Placemat
Placemats (Eng, Swe, Fin, Dan, Nor)
Digital Photography
Adobe® Photoshop® Elements + Premiere® Elements Bundle
Order Information
XPS 8500 Order
Processor
2nd gen Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB)
Accidental Damage Support
No Accidental Damage Support
Online Backup
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB - 1 year licence
Optical Software
Optical Media Not Required
Microsoft Application Software
Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Additional Software
XPS 8500 Resource DVD
Protect your new PC
McAfee® Security Center 15 month subscription
Operating System Recovery Options
OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included

Spudzzmurphy

I have been dealing with Dell for well over ten years and have had some issues with some of my units,and in most cases found them to be very good and helpful,but in your case,looking at the service history involved I would be looking for a replacement unit from Dell,END OF STORY !!,this replacing of parts is really a smokescreen,threaten them with the small claims courts and see how you get on,and need be, take them to the S.C.C you are well within your rights.
Best of luck in any case !!

HelpWithIT

If you are still getting BSOD screens after replacing motherboard...it sounds ominous!! You do have the right to get machine replaced...ring the NCA ( http://www.nca.ie/ ) for advice and make sure you have your reciept..

Inscrutable

RepairMyPC wrote: »

If you are still getting BSOD screens after replacing motherboard...it sounds ominous!! You do have the right to get machine replaced...ring the NCA ( http://www.nca.ie/ ) for advice and make sure you have your reciept..

It appears to have been resolved. The repair guy came with two memory modules and another motherboard, despite the fact that I had stressed that it came with four memory modules (4*4 GB). This meant that he had to check each memory module individually. Strangely, the same pre-boot memory diagnostic which came up negative when testing all four, came up straight away with an error for one of the memory modules.

So the problem all along appears to have been a single faulty DIMM (it's been a week with no problems so far). The earlier pre-boot diagnostic with all four was run several times over the phone with the guys in India. Clearly it needs to be designed better!

The Dell guys have been very apologetic, and they did give me a free wireless keyboard and mouse for the hassle. Which is something, but it did take far too long to figure out what was going wrong. The repair guys are contract and they mentioned how they have zero lattitude to investigate what has gone wrong once they arrive and are under strict instructions from the actual Dell guys in India. This could have been resolved had the Irish guy run the memory test the first time he arrived rather than the scattergun replacing parts approach!

duckysauce

Inscrutable wrote: »

It appears to have been resolved. The repair guy came with two memory modules and another motherboard, despite the fact that I had stressed that it came with four memory modules (4*4 GB). This meant that he had to check each memory module individually. Strangely, the same pre-boot memory diagnostic which came up negative when testing all four, came up straight away with an error for one of the memory modules.

So the problem all along appears to have been a single faulty DIMM (it's been a week with no problems so far). The earlier pre-boot diagnostic with all four was run several times over the phone with the guys in India. Clearly it needs to be designed better!

The Dell guys have been very apologetic, and they did give me a free wireless keyboard and mouse for the hassle. Which is something, but it did take far too long to figure out what was going wrong. The repair guys are contract and they mentioned how they have zero lattitude to investigate what has gone wrong once they arrive and are under strict instructions from the actual Dell guys in India. This could have been resolved had the Irish guy run the memory test the first time he arrived rather than the scattergun replacing parts approach!

the scattergun replacing parts approach is what they are paid for :cool::cool: the Dell techs on the phone should diag the problem properly and find it's a memory problem, did you see how long it takes to run the full memory diags the onsite tech could move in with you for a few days:rolleyes:

Inscrutable

Yea the contract guy might not have had time to do it if it wasn't an i7 because it's actually quite quick with that. All the combinations were checked in around an hour. This was just the standard test, not the further test it asks whether you want to do at the end or the full test of every combination!